1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed invention relates to machines and devices for mounting tires on wheels and, more particularly, methods and apparatus for mounting pneumatic tires on rigid wheels.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many types and styles of tire mounting machines and tools are known in the prior art. Various examples of tire mounting machines are shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,958,618; 5,826,319; 5,678,621; and 4,969,499 in which the wheel is mounted on a table and rotated angularly with respect to tire mounting tools. In some cases, the tire is secured as a fixed position such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,079. In other cases, the tools are mounted in a fixed position and the wheel and tire are rotated such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,088,539 and 4,784,203. Still other patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,145,566; 6,273,171; 6,453,971; 5,472,034; 4,133,363; 4,529,024; and 5,232,035 disclose various modifications for tools that are used to mount tires.
In all of these prior art schemes, tires are mounted according to the method whereby the bead of the tire is passed over the bead retaining rims of the wheel by causing a mounting tool to travel in an angular direction with respect to the wheel so as to stretch the bead of the tire over the bead retaining rim. It takes substantial time to mount a tire according to this method. Furthermore, as documented in several of the cited references, this method requires a distortion of the tire that can sometimes damage the tire. Accordingly, there was a need in the prior art for an apparatus and a method of mounting tires on a wheel that would be faster and that wold also be less prone to damaging the tire.